PITTSBURGH - To the list of simple childhood pleasures whose safety has been questioned, add this: eating snow. A recent study found that snow  even in relatively pristine spots like Montana and the Yukon  contains large amounts of bacteria.

Parents who warn their kids not to eat dirty snow (especially the yellow variety) are left wondering whether to stop them from tasting the new-fallen stuff, too, because of Pseudomonas syringae, bacteria that can cause diseases in bean and tomato plants.

But experts say there's no need to banish snow-eating along with dodgeball, unchaperoned trick-or-treating and riding a bike without a helmet.

"It's a very ubiquitous bacteria that's everywhere," says Dr. Penelope Dennehy, a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics' committee on infectious diseases. "Basically, none of the food we eat is sterile. We eat bacteria all the time."

Children practically bathe in bacteria when they go to the playground, and Dennehy says they won't get anything from snow that they wouldn't get from dirt.

"We eat stuff that's covered with bacteria all the time, and for the most part it's killed in the stomach," says Dr. Joel Forman, a member of the pediatric academy's committee on environmental health. "Your stomach is a fantastic barrier against invasive bacteria because it's a very acidic environment."

There are exceptions. "Tiny kids on formula a lot of times don't have the acid in their stomachs," making them more vulnerable to bacteria in general, says Dr. Lynnette Mazur, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Texas Medical School. Also, Forman and Mazur say that Pseudomonas can be a threat to people with cystic fibrosis.

The study, published last week in the journal Science, didn't examine the effects on people. And "I can say that I'm not aware of any clinical reports of children becoming ill from eating snow. And I looked," Forman says.

In any case, because of ordinary air pollution in snow, it's probably wise not to eat a lot of the stuff, pediatricians say. For parents in search of guidance, Mazur offers this: Licking a little snow off a glove is probably OK. "A meal of snow" is not.

Some parents say they are not going to worry about their kids eating snow that looks clean.

"My snow-eating concerns are generally more of the dirt-urine variety," says Kristin Lang, 37, of Maplewood, N.J., whose 2-year-old son Charlie has swallowed his share of snow.

"When I heard bacteria, at first I went 'eew,'" says Tricia Sweeney, a mother of three in Cornwall-on-Hudson, N.Y. But as long as the kids eat snow as it's falling, "I think it's OK. I tell them not to eat it if it's on the ground."

This may be one of those areas where knowledge is a dangerous thing, or what you don’t know can’t hurt you. My mother spent a bazillion hours admonishing us on the downside of eating snow. It didn’t take. I, and nearly everyone of my childhood buddies, ate snow by the barrel. I don’t think I EVER heard of anyone getting sick from it.

When I was a child I pushed off the blackened, polluted snow on top so that I could get to the good, tasty white snow underneath. Somehow I've made it to the ripe age of 39.

There's some speculation that the reason kids are allergic to everything under the sun these days is because their parents are trying to raise them in a "bacteria-free" lifestyle and their bodies aren't building up immunities the way they should.

used to be for fear of nuke test fall-out that folks might have been advised to be more cautious,, these days, maybe it’s crud from china and india,, the old adages still apply .. and nope, never got sick here either..

"There's some speculation that the reason kids are allergic to everything under the sun these days is because their parents are trying to raise them in a "bacteria-free" lifestyle and their bodies aren't building up immunities the way they should."

You got that right. If you picked 1,000 people at random and asked them if they would "kill all the bacteria in the world if they could", my guess is that 995 would say yes, not even realizing how sick they would be as a result...

According to today’s regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 30’s, 40’s, 50’s, 60’s, 70’s or even the early 80’s, probably shouldn’t have survived.

Our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paint.

We had no childproof lids or locks on medicine bottles, doors, or cabinets, and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets.

Not to mention the risks we took hitchhiking

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.

Riding in the back of a pickup truck on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose
and not from a bottle. Horrors!

We ate cupcakes, bread and butter, and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but we were never overweight because we were always outside playing.

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle, and no one actually died from this.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then rode down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the street lights came on. No one was able to reach us all day. No cell phones. Unthinkable!

We did not have Play stations, Nintendo 64, X-Boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, video tape movies, surround sound, personal cell phones, personal computers, or Internet chat rooms. We had friends! We went outside and found them.

We played dodge ball, and sometimes, the ball would really hurt. We fell out of trees, got cut and broke bones and teeth, and there were no lawsuits from these accidents. They were accidents. No one was to blame but us. Remember accidents?

We had fights and punched each other and got black and blue and learned to get over it.

We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out any eyes.
We rod e bikes or walked to a friend’s home and knocked on the door, or rang the bell or just walked in and talked to them.

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn’t had to learn to deal with disappointment.

Some students weren’t as smart as others, so they failed a grade and were held back to repeat the same grade. Horrors!

Tests were not adjusted for any reason.

Our actions were our own. Consequences were expected.

The idea of parents bailing us out if we got in trouble in school or broke a law was unheard of. They actually sided with the school or the law. Imagine that!

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers, and inventors, ever.

We had freedom, failure, success, and responsibility — and we learned how to deal with it.

Well, I am 59 years old and I still like standing out in the snow trying to catch a snowflake on my tongue. It’s probably not a good idea to fill up on the stuff, but I am not going to worry about a little snow.

Don’t drink from creeks though....I’ve done that, only to find that the cattle were upstream. ;>)

43
posted on 03/04/2008 2:57:15 PM PST
by Gator113
(America traded away the possibility of a dream, for what is certain to be a nightmare.)

A great post, very nice reading. It’s nice to be reminded that imagination is wonderful. An ordinary stick could be anything, put on the mitt and you could be Whitey Ford or Mickey Mantle, or you name your childhood baseball hero.

This is not an old man rambling, digger, by damn, you struck a resonant chord.

49
posted on 03/04/2008 3:49:18 PM PST
by Hilltop
(Control the high ground. Control the battlefield.)

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